rapturerebornmmorpgfandomcom-20200216-history
Part 104
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - More interesting items/ideas for a Bioshock Rapture MMORPG --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Part 104 --- --- --- --- --- Crawling up Walls is something 'Foreigners' do ... not Upstanding Citizens ' : Infinite BS's Loss by not having better "flying" adversaries in Columbia ... The mini-zeppelin would be really tiny (like the guys body is suspended from it like a mini parachute (shoulder straps, not one handed Mary Poppins style) - the balloon just over his head and the propellor on his back, weapons maybe on a tray in front of him. All using the same impossible physics as in the rest of the game - if it was all stolen alien/future technology then why does it have to look like Bad Steampunk stuff). * Small enough to maneuver thru alot of scenery (up in the air), but slower pace than running. * Very distinctive sound... * Flag streaming behind would be a neat visual effect. * Pilot wearing flying helmet and goggles (and scarf ?). * Not just limited to those obvious 'Canned' battle situations (ie- Random Encounters...). * More than one for a more complicated situation - forcing Player to move to maintain cover. * Dropping bombs (maybe the Player would have the fun of getting to fly them at certain points in the game) --- --- --- INFINITE-BS_REDO '''Infinite BS Robot Terrors (Instead of those stupid 'Boys of Silence' things ?) ' : The Stalking Gentlemen (Automatic Gentleman Servitors run amok) to be a rampant robot" (a guiltless slaughterfest target). Some 'hacked' robot, done by the Vox Populi (its not 'upstanding' enough to be a Founder unit...) A stalker for them (Founders) would probably be a human Big Game Hunter in safari hat and everything... They could climb sufficiently with their arms/claws - no need for hands on feet (or hooks of the Spider Splicers). "It will NOT stop, You can't Reason with it, Its only purpose is to KILL YOU ...." (can even have the Terminators Red Eyes ...) This follows the IMPROVED storyline that Fink has plans to eliminate all the 'sinners' (immigrant/minority underclass) from Columbia by having the work they currently do performed by automated servitors. The player can run into vatrious models of these new devices. --- --- --- 'Not sure whatall Infinite BS has to do with America 1912 or 1893 or Anytime ... ' : Is this the way Levine sees America ? -- As a floating Third Reich ? But But But ... Its 'an allegory' to bring attention to American social evils. NO it fucking isn't. Its a demented Fantasy presentation pretending to be America to be controversial to '''sell a below-par shoot-em-up sequel computer game. --- --- --- Audio Diary Analysis Fontaine Must Go (Vague Audio Diary) ' : Ryan : "Something must be done about Fontaine. While I was buying buildings and fish futures, he was cornering the market on genotypes and nucleotide sequences. Rapture is transforming before my eyes. The Great Chain is pulling away from me. Perhaps it's time to give it a tug." Vague as always. But consider, if Ryan Industries was already into the ADAM Market, perhaps Ryan had concentrated on specialized Medical Therapies as a product (we saw ads for TB cure, the Bends, Phossy Jaw...), then Fontaine suddenly(?) turns ADAM into a Consumer product, with greatly expanded sales and profits. This probably would be because Fontaine was using the 'orphaned' children as Slug-hosts, and was producing 20-30 times as much ADAM 'per source unit' (thus having a larger/cheaper supply of the critical substance and now more money to do additional R&D). --- --- --- '"Blind The Pervert" Product (counter to Peeping Tom Plasmid) ' : 'Peeping Tom' Sounds like a great opportunity for developing a "Blind The Pervert" counter-product to counter users of this and other similar privacy violating products. ADAM based or a technical device (maybe easier to create) designed to burn the eyes out of anyone looking into a person's private area. Lessor versions might just impart a mind-crushing migraine for a few hours to dissuade 'privacy pirates'. Benign to normal vision (can't go maiming the innocent or ones self). Portable versions "Coming Next Year" ... Would be useful tactical weapon in the MMORPG (New Rapture period AND in Flashbacks) to temporarily blind opponents. In device form for ADAM-Free New Rapturite Players - probably the product of Player 'fabrication'. As simple as good ole flashbulbs fired into the faces of darkness inhabiting Splicers. --- --- --- '''Songbird - WTF Is It ? ' : For the Cy-boid 'Songbird' being mechanical in structure in a World/Universe (game) where magic 'Tears' exist -- where it is just as easy (in Fantasy) to make it look like a 'real' giant bird instead of a half-assed 19th century artifact - there would be some reason (OR NOT if the developers don't care, and it simply 'Looks Good' -- "yeah yeah, and it can have glowing terminator eyes -- THAT will be cool...."). Actually, a real bird is hard to animate in detail - humans can spot defects instantly, making that approach hard to get right. Some big mechanical thing CAN be visually clumsy without looking stupid. Songbird surely is a cyborg (clockwork brained NPCs can't really be intelligent or empathic), and if it was some magical thing (since Infinite is heavy on the Fantasy genre) it should not have to be so crudely mechanical. If something mechanical can 'think' in Infinite, then we might get ready for a HAL/Colossus/SkyNet clockwork computer to be the real-reason/bad-guy/twisty-bit ... (good idea for the INFINITE-BS_REDO plotline) If it is partially human ?? Unfortunately no backstory of how that came to be is offered (coulda had some strange 'other' Booker to give it a 'heart rendering' storyline of some Father-Daughter whatever). http://rapturerebornmmorpg.wikia.com/wiki/File:AbbeyNormal.jpg Is another one of Fink's "the greatest genius in history" exploits (Just think, if he had really applied himself, he coulda had invented the Self-Cleaning Window or Toilet !!!) As to the 'twist', Songbird may only really be an Insurance Salesman from Cincinnati who happened to be "In the wrong place at the wrong time" or somesuch (seriously who tries to sell insurance door-to-door at a Lighthouse ??). Better might be : Being Elizabeth's father who was 'cursed by a witch' or a gypsy (or somesuch) or who found the Templar's Secret Magic Horde and fell into the legendary "Crystal of the Infinite" (or somesuch), etc, etc, etc.... Since it is fantasy-land, Songbird could be anything now (in a genre where 'twists' are a dime a dozen....). And with the MMORPGs creation tools, Players can weave amazing stories around anything they like in Infinite BS, and do far better. --- --- --- '''Ghosts stuff (SteamPunk Elements in Infinite) : 'Steampunk' has Gothic Horror elements mixed in with it (vampires and such), so it isn't actually a Science Fiction genre because of that (usually that is smart enough to NOT delve into how any of the 'technology' could possible work)... Maybe they could have had fewer (of the endless) 'police' / 'Security' Enemies, and a few more interesting 'metaphysical' 'horror' ones ? Large Rabid Were-Rabbits? Maggots of Doom ? Million Cannibal Babies? They got stuck on their fake 'American History' BS, and lost great potential for a much more interesting game. --- --- --- Radios in Columbia (example) : Radios were a revolution of the age .... Even though the base design time for Columbia's objects/styles/clothing should have been pre-1900, they should have rushed forward with select technological advancements as everyone on the Surface had done significantly (by 1912). The game-presented shifts would have been spotty with new 'high tech' anachronistic Tear caused whizzbangs (well futuristic even of 1912) alongside the older things (1893 + 1912). Radios (private and public) should have been everywhere, constantly playing 'patriotic' music, praise for the prophet, advertisements for Fink's everything, anachronistic pop-music, news and public safety admonishments. Such an element was adopted and WAS used effectively by many Police States of the kind Levine has lamely created here (for his fake America) . Alot of the problem with the 'advanced' props seen in-game, was that they stopped projecting forward, still with too much influence from the Steam-Age, and not enough jarring temporal discordance typical of this kind of fantasy situation (not just flying things, but the vast range of more common everyday articles). They missed a significant chance for some proper 'Shock' (which isn't really 'Bio' anyway - misusing of the game Title for $$$ ). Sci-Fi (lets pretend this is) is supposed to highlight the EFFECTS upon society of Technology, not so much trying to explain it (and attempting to explain with such faux-science was just lazy, dumb and cheap). It would have been different for Rapture, with its late-40s/early-50s base technologies, with a more normal (if somewhat accelerated) technical progression alongside the never-seen-before genetic 'Shock' stuff. Infinite BS - Simply not enough creativity of thought. (The Timetravel/Dimensional Travel stuff was already so passe', so that long ago the Sci-Fi pulp magazines gave such up). --- --- A Potemkin Shithouse ... ' : Massive Manufacturing shown at Fink's Manufacturing in Columbia (yes, yes, it is there to HAVE to have a 'downtrodden' Working Class needed for the lame social theme's backdrop ...), but there are all those (Disneyland Mainstreet) shops selling multitudes of goods - where is all that stuff made ? Stolen from the Surface ?? - Where are all the SMALL businesses - craftsmen (the REAL AMERICA Levine & Co ignores in their divisive simpleton's hatchet job society) ???? "Sorry, such boring 'reality' stuff gets in the way of the shooting", (and of the lame Faux Science ??) A Huge cliche Bank (10X whats needed for the population - Ka-ching $$$!! - Religion Money is Levine's take ?) ... maybe the shoemakers, seamstresses, cabinetmakers, farmers are all hidden underground (a Tear subway to the rest of Columbia) ??? An Exhibition "Show City" was all Columbia was - all a Lathe & Plaster and Chickenwire mockup, meant to last only a year. THAT would have been a sight - Columbia fallen into utter rubbish, with the delusional people pretending it wasn't so (kindof an allegory of today's Game Industry ...). --- --- --- '''My Infinite BS Early Trailer Comments ': Heh, they have the phony optical lens internal reflection artifacts turned ON for some of the scenes (ie- 0:35). Noone told the effects guys that this is supposed to be from a humans (eye) viewpoint ?? Footage from the operating game engine ?? Then someones gots some 'splainin to do. The IceCream shop's little flying things are a decoration on a rotating fan (not security Flybots) - the white glowing ice-cream looks good (Now With Extra Radium !!!). Place looks kinda nice, until Booker starts shooting it up. 0:41 if you are going to pretend balloons are being used, at least bother to learn how balloons behave. *Winces* at "Skyline Jumpers Syndrome" - with a unpleasant sound of dislocating shoulder joints (and wrist and elbow an/or fingers being torn from a hand), and the stains that the street-sweepers will swear at -- Having to clean up the splattered corpses, WHEN the insane jumper misses and falls that 500 feet to the level below ... Giant Upholstery brads holding something (Elizabeth is falling from) together - very stylish (and they say that those decorative arts degrees are not good for anything ...) And the big bird thingee has football stitches on his garment - interesting. Now I see why the 'Skyhook' contraption has that 3 sided rotating hook thingee on it - more to facilitate grinding up faces than to make possible hooking a Skyline cable/rail (or whatever that weird skyline mechanism employs). Hmm, lotsa Stormtroopers in red booties - they have to make (some of) the targets a bit less human there ??? (to justify Booker's (Players) Politically-correct mass-slaughter, murdering of humans wholesale). As expected, Booker's guns do alot more damage than all the others firing at him do (what good are the Stormtrooper suits if they don't offer more protection ??? Twist ? DO they have some kind of soul-less mutants inside ??) I don't recall seeing any direct view of Fitzroy - just propaganda views (projected or poster) so they very well could be made up persona (or real but completely different looking). And its within *twisty* possibilities that Columbia's 'civil war' will be artificially induced for one entity's amusement (the puppetmasters - ie - the Luteces). Fitzroy is an alternate Elizabeth ... will have to wait and see. Politics in that time/era would call for personal (in-person) visits by leaders, and not to have them would be at odds to an (actual) American's thinking. But then more and more the place seems under some great delusion -- maybe thats it. At some point (to convert this illogical lame-assed plot mess) we get a BS2 Little Sisterland-like Flashback to ugly reality : the place is really a wreck - maybe even crashed on the ground -- and they are all just ghosts living out their crazy nightmare for eternity. Now THATS GOOOOD Twisty-ness !! The various 'quantumz' technology implied by the gamemakers is something scientists couldn't even do today, and all the pixie-dust (or whatever what makes it work) had better be something Elizabeth related (or similar Fantasy reasoning at least to try to make it fit together). If Columbia was built in 1893 and its now 1912, then maybe Elizabeth who looks about 19 possibly is central to making the whole weird situation work (and when she is gone ...). - 'Fitzroy speculation ' : ***Twisty Warning*** Fake persona like 'Atlas" -- anyone taking bets ??? Eleanor's "sister" ?? (or evil twin ...) Vampires, Witches, Cat Aliens involved somehow??? (we gots Ghosts apparently, soooooo.....) Booker was actually sent by the recently created IRS (there to arrest Comstock for back taxes...)?? "WYK" traveled back in time via a 'Tear' ??? - '''LATER TRAILER COMMENTARY : Not Quite How Things Work : There would no longer be "Vox Populi" in the same sense as being 'the peoples voice', no matter how much a lie that usually really is - noone would be fooled any longer. Major disruptions, murder and mayhem don't sit well with ordinary people (and the Untermenschen in a police state are kept VERY afraid of taking ANY action). Now the 'Vox Populi' have mutated into 'red' Stormtroopers, which no downtrodden 'immigrants' could afford to field (the street rabble we saw in earlier trailers WAS the classic form of revolting people, stirred up by conventional revolutionaries in that era). But Players shooting at (and slaughtering) 'normal' people just isn't PC, so that had to be changed. With what the game has now turned into, its lost all of the flavor that would have had the opponents make sense (all the historical analogy for the opposing sides - Police vs Rioters - Labor Unrest, Anarchists). The Vox now look like just another power faction, who are simply killing to gain power - conveniently made much more faceless to make it easier for the Player to slaughter by the hundreds. Perhaps it is the game producer's priority (isn't it always) to show off the glitziest new effects (which these days is all most games are), with them KNOWING that is the primary game factor/element (no matter what 'story' there is) which 'sells' the game to the usual suspects. It will be interesting to see if it is Booker who precipitates all the mayhem. People don't sit placidly on the beach in the middle of a 'civil war'/revolution in a place so small. Remember in BS1, Jack was significant in that HE killed Ryan and doomed Rapture (Rapture was on the point of recovering as Atlas had all but lost, and if Ryan had lived Lamb/etc.. would have gotten nowhere). The Stormtroopers in Red shown repeatedly (supposed to be Vox ?) though glitzy, is too far beyond what was previously portrayed to us -- as the historical situation (the fabricated Dystopia at turn of the 20th century). Faceless Myrmidons in nearly armored-space-suits do not really belong in Columbia. Even the floating blue police barge thingee smacks too much of Buck Rodgers/Flash Gordon (except even less realistic). Add mass-hypnosis to the possible explanations for alot of the confusing behaviors.. Maybe it is all really a Purgatory for Pinkerton Agents (where they can still use the 'Yes Elizabeth, I am your Father" twist -- but at that point it is only a little twist - the kind of twist you have everyday with your tea.....) Or maybe it is just some Ergot Poisoning dreams ontop of all those bad patent medicines Booker took for a toothache... At this point, maybe NOT having any twist will be 'The Twist'. Constable Booker will wake up from his bad dream in Rapture at the end ??? (actually that one isn't half bad). HE gotta lay-off on the Absinthe .... - One area of the city is dedicated to the bravery of John Wilkes Booth, who Columbia's population says rightfully murdered the man responsible for the wrongful emancipation of the Union. -- Hmmmm .... Confederate flags (if they weren't so controversial) might be more appropriate instead of those pseudo US flags ??? Religion with a point of pro-slavery now ??? This game is seriously warping away from what it was originally shown as. VERY Little to do with any portrayal of 'American Exceptionalism'. I wonder what it will warp into next. --- --- --- Columbia the Backwater : Consider - after countless "Tears" start appearing on the Ground (who says they stay IN Columbia, now ???) the 1000X amount of brains and resources and motives of the Surface World move that world forward 100X as much as in archaic/anachronistic (socially/technically Conservative) Columbia. By 1920, The President of the US presses a button and Columbia is instantly destroyed... (OR why bother because Columbia is really a ZOO for "the stupid", mandated by The Primes to serve as a lesson to school children). SO, the real story would have been what happened in the World via the Lutece's discoveries and their aftermath. --- --- 40's Slang (Spatter about Rapture) ': * Take a powder – to leave * Fuddy-Duddy – old-fashioned person * Gobbledygook – double talk, long speech * Fat-head – stupid or foolish person * Chrome-dome – word for a bald headed man * Eager beaver – enthusiastic helper * Armored heifer – canned milk * In cahoots with – conspiring with * Snap your cap – get angry * Active duty – sexually promiscuous boy * Share crop – sexually promiscuous girl * Doll dizzy – girl crazy * Ducky shincracker – a good dancer * Above my pay grade – don’t ask me * Cook with gas – to do something right * Killer-diller – good stuff * Hi sugar, are you rationed? – are you going steady? * Stompers – shoes * Flip your wig – to lose control of yourself * Dead hoofer – poor dancer * Bathtub – motorcycle sidecar * Pennies from heaven – easy money * Ameche – to telephone * Gone with the wind – run off (with the money) * Lettuce – money * Gas – either a good time or something that was really funny * Grandstand – to show off * Brainchild – someone’s creative idea * What’s buzzin’, cousin? – how’s it going? * Khaki wacky – boy crazy * Hen fruit – eggs * Hi-de-ho – hello * Pass the buck – pass responsibility for * Motorized freckles – insects --- --- --- '''Rapture Public TV - Fred Frimboe's Swimming Aardvarks ' : Obviously a Monty Python takeoff (long before it existed in 1968) ... Must be at least a few Cambridge and Oxford graduates to tap into for this flavor of humor. Usual weird skits and animations and weirdness (general clearinghouse for Player Creations that didn't quite make it to 'PrimeTime'). --- --- --- '''Levine's Bombshell ?? : Levine says there is no meaningful choices in the game (Infinite BS) - in a larger sense is this his alibi/excuse for giving the Players an inferior game -- it was merely fate (for him to create such)??? Out of his control ? The Quantumz control all !!! All Hail The Quantumz !!! It was predestined to be a regurgitation sequel of a much better game... What if we were to go back in time and drown him ? Hmmmm (thats one way to possibly get $100 million for this BioShock MMORPG). --- --- Alternate Excuses for Phantasy Physics : Atlantean Knowledge - totally open ended (Fink just 'portals' using the 'Crystal Skull' to That Bar in Atlantis to get his stuff (pays with human babies the Atlanteans see as a culinary delicacy) ...) Alien Cats ... "Lord Garfield, What should we do with these tedious apes ??" Comstock arrogantly ignored the annual delivery of the Tuna Tribute ... Hello Kitties in Power Armor descended and wreaked havoc ... "Let Loose the Cats of War !!!" If all else fails : Unicorn Tears !!! Dragon Pharts !!! --- --- Rapture's Civil War ?? ''' : More like a terrorist campaign of murder and destruction bent on taking over Rapture. The majority of Citizens in Rapture saw Atlas and his ilk for what they were (the kind of power hungry thugs they had come to Rapture to get away from). SO don't let the label fool you. If not for the unconventional/unexpected ADAM based destructive abilities available to the Terrorists (where conventional weapons really weren't effective), Atlas would have remained a minor irritant/criminal and eventually would have been caught and sent into exile with all the others not willing to live by Rapture's social contract. --- --- '''Your 'Thoughts' recorded in only a 2-Pound Package !!! Wow (Aint Modern Technology Wondrous?)... : Those Audio Diaries (seen in BioShock Solo games) - Why are they as big as the cassette Tape Recorders of 40 years ago ? And then they record ONLY a single message of only about a minute, with NO interchangeable media. (( I do understand they had to make a game object that was easily visible, but with that glowey highlighting you coulda found Elizabeth's lost thimble easily, as the highlighting was so blatantly done). If these things were so useful, then you would think we would be 'knee-deep' in them in the game. But instead, there just weren't that many of the overly expensive/clumsy things for us to find... Apparently another recorder company had come up with a superior aluminum 'disk' media system with magnetic stuff on its surface (call it 'GammaMax'), which would FIT into an interchangeable recorder/player, and would each disk hold 20X as much messages. But (the story goes) that Fontaine didn't like the way it competed (as in beat out) HIS product, and he bought the company out cheap (with some of his usual 'coercion'), and put them out of business. You will be finding these superior 'disk' message things in the MMORPG, and the magnetic-players are being made again for them (as probably WOULD have happened sometime after Fontaine was killed -- except for the Civil War starting). Interesting would be Game Assets recorded by Player Creators using their own voices -- voice talent isn't cheap (so don't expect the MMORPG company to record many), but there might be plenty of sufficiently good Players able to create these things (audio diaries/public announcements/commercials/radio programs) - if the Computer Generated Voice quality isn't "up to snuff" by then. - Sidebar : With all the people Fontaine forced out of business... in real life (as an example of a similar situation in the Novel illustrated) one of his victims (or their relatives) would have walked up to him, stuck a sawed off shotgun in his face, and blown his head off. Rapture wasn't a big place, and unless Fontaine hid all the time, some determined person would eventually get even with him (no matter how many bodyguards he had). But then ... 'plot' ... 'cuz' ... 'shooter-game' ... --- --- --- Fake Ocean Beach in Columbia : Water is Lighter (less dense) than most Rock -- typical density of ordinary rocks is about 1.5-2X that of water. So it is no worse a weight issue than those ground/paved streets (to whatever thickness) making up the rest of magical Columbia. Of course water likes to slosh around, and can precipitate a flow/shift that would unbalance its container (how they keep these floating city blocks up in the air is difficult enough to explain to even worry about keeping them stable - giant gerbils in those 'gyroscoping' wheel things maybe ?). Water evaporates across that large surface, and thus would have to be constantly replaced (You would think Comstock would want the least possible contact with the Surface for resupply - but there no friggin way for THAT - never explained despite all the attempted scientific 'splainin' done with the Quantumz BS.) Pix - http://rapturerebornmmorpg.wikia.com/wiki/File:PostcardBattlshipBay.jpg The waterfall on the Battleship Bay's water edge (seen in the postcard/kinetoscope ) BETTER have a catchment (not flow out of Columbia). No real reason for that falls feature (except to 'look good', though not sure who could see it from the Beach side angle), as all that volume of water would need to be constantly pumped up from wherever for the 'Sea' to stay filled (where whatever wave generators required for the game-hinted 'surfing' can make use of it). People swimming or boating (fishing ?) on the water would be imperiled by such an 'edge' (and the 15000 foot plunge). Other Water in Columbia ? : Even for the city water supply, they would need something the size of a lake, the way REAL cities use up water (and even more for any (unseen) manufacturing and agriculture -- Unfortunately, the MULTITUDE of needed sources for raw materials to run Columbia never happen to get explained). If we want any desirable realism, there would have to be pipes linking all the city's islands (and wires for power/communications, pipes for gas, etc..) Cities usually become a twisted mess of those utility systems (THAT would have be en a bigger realization to modern-thinking Players - rather than the cute floatyshit). They did bother to represent that 'train' transport system - but then, the bizaare Rollercoaster-like Skyline feature is fundamental to some SHOOTING game activities/plot, so it had to be present (in its final, much curtailed and pointless form). Swimming pools need to be kept relatively clean, and they usually (in the old days) had a continuous flow of water from an outside source so as to not let the swimming water accumulate contamination/diseases (that wasteful method is not really available in Columbia). Pools were often covered to control the temperature (the game completely ignores the fact that it is damn cold at 15000+ feet altitude). Large Cisterns might have been enough for Mayans (with their huge plaster-lined plazas to collect rainwater), but that method is not enough to supply water to a modern city. The huge amount of water has to be supplied from off Columbia itself, and frequently be renewed into whatever containment/storage is used. Pipes would be logical to transfer it to all parts of the City, from whatever central intakes or storage which is filled from some ground source (a fleet of barges constantly flying up and down would be wholy inadequate, as would any Vapor Precipitators from the atmosphere). The Skyline's structure are insufficient to run/string the needed 'utilities' between separate floating City sections. I looked closely at some of the trailers to try to figure how the Skyline rails are supposed to work(old ones could potentially -- if this was Sci-Fi), and the old pictures showed a moving chain inside 'C" shaped rail that would move the trains. Unfortunately the 'rails' even then were shown largely unsupported. The new pictures are about the same, and visual rails would be too small to transfer the large amounts of water (and any other utility function), and the rest of the game's panoramas are devoid of anything that could serve the purpose. - The Founding Father's Heavenly Rollercoaster : Columbia being built for an Exposition means it could hardly have started as a viable operating city, and thus would have had to be greatly expanded/modified sometime later... So if such modifications were done, then why leave the Skyline in such an asinine state (that bizarre Rollercoaster it obviously is shaped like - ignoring also that it always runs around in small circles). This of course - IF for a remake (if the MMORPG system Players wished to do it), a LOGICAL correction to the stupid fantasy contrivances of the initial game is being made, THEN a proper Skyline transport system could be formed, and maybe that originally envisioned game use of it could happen. ((Funny, I don't recall Levine giving back the E3 awards, when all his company's presentations turned out to be just canned 'bait and switch' game hype, and most had evaporated by the time the game was released)). --- --- --- MMORPG - Preloading of Game Situation (for Players) on Login (A Game Mechanics Issue) : With the additional greater level of game details in the MMORPG, there is more for the Client Program to Sync-up with than in the typical low detail/static static level-oriented MMORPG games. There likely would be a longer wait which needs to be handled/controlled/minimized, and the Player kept entertained while this process happens. Ideas : 1) To Cache on disk at the Client the data for the immediate vicinity/and general Game Map last state at Logout time (speeding up the resolution of the visible vicinity). 2) To delay login (Character-Activation) while the critical Change-Since-Last-Active updates are loaded from the Server (to have adequate data to present their Avatar's local situation sufficiently) 3) To have optional delay of Character-Active while Fine Detail updates are loaded (streaming) for immediate vicinity of the Player's Avatar (adequate filler detail is used until the actual data gets loaded). 4) Player to have immediate access to in-game Mail/Auction House/Team-Task activities, to have something for Player to do while waiting for a sufficient update to take place. 5) Subsequent preloading of 'out of view' Adjacent Area state then works as normal (to be ready when the Player suddenly moves into an adjacent area) -- Big enough areas are preloaded so that disconcerting 'detail' transition isn't normally visible. --- --- --- --- --- Part 39 --- --- --- --- Game_Experience The MMORPG is not on 'Hard' mode (but maybe for some people actually having to THINK Playing a game will be 'hard') : The Corpse Gnomes would 'go on strike' because of the constant/endless hauling of Player corpses back to the Hospital/Reconstitution facility, and the Players would get sick of waiting to heal before resuming their adventures (Idea - a dreamscape to give the Player something to do while 'recovery' is in progress - strange I don't remember Ryan having a giant chicken head or Trolleys being made out of chocolate or giant mechanical pigeons or chromatic colors everywhere...). Less deaths, more maiming. There would be 'situation contingencies' in this game for Players to deal with (and exercise their imaginations to handle them - you have to play very differently tactics-wise when you can only crawl because both your legs are broken and Splicers are hunting you). No Insta-Heal ... deal with it. These game enhancements DO require the In-Game World interactions to 'make sense' (to be close to what real things act like, so Players dont have to continually second-guess whether any solution is a waste of time - 'It just don't do dat'). Objects should behave like real as much as possible - so than player can know what to expect from them. More options of actions, but making the interface easy to control (to make it do what you decide without going down 5 levels of menus). Consoles might NEED voice commands as they simply have too few buttons. One of the things I hate most about some games is having to FIGHT a dimwitted mis-designed interface, when I'm SUPPOSED to be trying to fight the opponents in a game. --- --- --- --- --- Return of Barbed Wire : Can be made by the unskilled (and Splicers that like simple hobbies). It is essentially twisted wire with short sharp objects (usually more wire with sharp points) inserted into the length (between two twisted wires). When strung, it presents a physical obstruction (you get stuck on it and it can do puncture/tear damage). Its fairly strong and the sharp bits usually prevent brute force attempts to push thru the Barbed-wire Obstruction - its easy to get caught in it. Is used to slow down opponents as a defensive measure. Can often be deployed quickly from rolls. Counter-measures take time (cutting manually or with explosives) Lightweight and versatile. When wire already exists, it can be manufactured with simple hand tools. Didn't we see some on one of the melee clubs in the Multi-Player game ? Farms in Rapture could have used it to restrict the movements of various livestock, along with Chickenwire. --- --- --- --- --- . .